Weather: Rainy until lunchtime, becoming sunny by hometime. 10.

Travel: No problems out, though the 0649 to London is over 20 late. Back we're routed behind the 1707 to Shrewsbury, leave BNS 8 late, which becomes 12 late leaving Wolverhampton thanks to a stand waiting the stopper to leave. It does allow the fast train to clear ahead of us.

Intellectual Property Is Theft A federal appeals court rules that the music-swapping service Napster must stop trading in copyrighted material and may be held liable for "vicarious copyright infringement." Napster must prevent users from gaining access to copyrighted content through its lists of songs archived by the service's users. Napster officials have said such a ruling could force them to shut down the service.

Labour MP George Galloway is among 340 people arrested during a mass protest at the Faslane naval base in Scotland, home of Britain's Trident nuclear submarines. The protesters were attempting to blockade Faslane, on the River Clyde. Anti-nuclear weapons group Trident Ploughshares and Scottish CND, who organised the protest, claim the Trident missiles breach international law.

Things They Didn't Know On The Weakest Link

• Chelsea's father (Bill Clinton, Esq)
• The Bundesbank isn't in Spain (It's in Germany)
• Mexico City is larger than Rio.
• Jersey has more inhabitants than Guernsey. (Go watch The Mole.)

Angela Bigos, get your goat:
Wait till I tell him about the other animals one can buy- bees, chickens, ducks, geese, Llamas, pigs!
Llamas! This reminds me of a standing joke amongst Millionaire fans...

On the first US series, back in August 1999, some poor fool made the hot seat. His first question...
$100: Hannibal crossed the Alps with which animal?
A) Llamas B) Giraffes
C) Gnus D) Elephants

Our brainiac hero wasn't sure, so he went 50/50 to leave
A) Llamas D) Elephants

Now he's sure.
"Llamas."
Final answer?
A) Llamas

As any student of Italian history will tell you, Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants. You don't get llamas in Europe.

So, anyone giving a wrong answer to an early question, or completely underperforming (think Daphne Fowler in the last Fifteen-to-One final) is accused of "llamaing out," or "being a llama."

Maybe we ought to get Regis Philbin to buy one...

Weather: Frost to sun, +9. There are shades of light as I catch the 635.

Travel: Fine both ways.

Need to apply for a life assurance policy, though, which presents an interesting conundrum. There's a box to tick if I'm an "active homosexual bisexual intravenous drug user or sexual partner of the above." (These people really haven't heard of the comma. Don't tell Dr Wordsmith.)

Now, how does one define "active" in the quote above? First base? Second? Third? Home run? Twice around the park? I'm reckoning on something close to home base, but by any serious definition I can tick no with a clear conscience, and leave all the gory details of exactly *why* to your collective imaginations. Heck, you'd be pushing it to describe me as sexually active regardless of gender. Even the most ardent family values campaigner would not find too much to object to in one relationship in five years, and it was backed by the promise of marriage (: >*<

Other stuff. While wandering around, struck by the familiar background music being played in some of the stores. One was playing Leeann Womack; "I Hope You Dance" may have been CMA record of the year, and a strong contender for the Grammy equivalent, but here it's background music for shopping malls. Another was Joe's "I Wanna Know," which has had even less promotion than Ms Womack; yet the soft soul sounded perfectly in place. Insert usual rant about useless record companies and radio stations.

The city's tram system froze up this morning. Rain yesterday turned to hoar overnight, and that proved to be too much for the overhead pick-up lines. What a cheap and grotty system. I don't recall the trams in Toronto having this problem, and they have to face ice every day for months on end, as well as significant snow falls. How do they do it, and can they tell Birmingham how it's done?

Enrique Lopez:
Does anyone know what's going on with Napster.
Let me crank up the news pages...
"A US court rules that Napster has been encouraging and facilitating the wholesale infringement of music companies' copyrights. Napster, which claims 58 million users, can remain in operation while it appeals. But if it ultimately loses, the existence of Napster will be threatened because detecting and blocking copyright-infringing traffic might prove technically unworkable."

someone also said that after June/July it'll be no-longer free?
Different matter. Napster.com announced a few weeks ago that it was partnering with Bertelsmann "Music" Grope to allow that Corp's music to be traded for members paying a monthly fee.

so is this "no-longer free Napster" happening or what?
Good question. Don't think napster.com knows the answer just yet.

And who is gonna use it if you have to pay??
Good question. Shall we start at "no-one" and work up?

Last night on BBCnews24,
Good heavens! The other News 24 viewer! *That's* where you've been.

there was an interview with this woman about it and she seemed pretty convinced that it would be shut down and that a new "Napster," I can't remember what it's called would become available. The new thing apparently wouldn't be able to be sued or anything, because there wouldn't be any server which people logged onto.
Have a look for gnutella in your favoured directory engine google thing. Or keep watching Liquid News.

(I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't actually know what's going on.
There may be a lady in accounts who didn't know about it.
[Ten star points for anyone who can say what that's a quote from.]

Weather: Frost and fog soon turns to sun. +10.

Travel: No problems out. Back features a bus that gets me to New Street in time to catch the 1710 (1 late) then the 1745 bus. Which takes 4 minutes to travel 100 yards down the bus station, then gets caught as the Chapel Ash tailback stretches past Beatties. Gets.

So, a colleague can't connect to the internet. He can't ping at all. OK, old network card, let's whip it out and turn it into a new one. Still no joy. Something wrong with TCP/IP? Remove it, re-install it. That's not solved the problem, and now he can't get to the mail server. Can still log on to the network, though. Have a google. Find a mention of this error linked to a faulty TCP/IP stack. Download the recommended fix for it, and install it. It falls over, recommending to reboot, look at the log, run the undo batch file, and reboot again. The log shows a first entry on Monday, when the computer was last used. And there's a copy of this program elsewhere on the hard disc. "Did you download anything just before this happened?" wonders I. "No, can't think of anything," says the colleague, lying through his teeth. What a waste of three hours.

So, the bus home was a nightmare. Driver who takes forever to get out of the bus station, stopping to pick passengers up well off his stand. I can figure waiting for someone rushing to make the bus, at least they're trying. But those strolling and flagging just as we're passing really ought to be left behind.
Some of the eejits we pick up just seem to be riding the bus for the hell of it. "We're getting off now." "Stay on, we can cross and return." Do these people not have lives? Apparently not. After a good ten minutes of squealing and hovering, blocking the stairs for any *genuine* passenger who wants to leave, they finally get off, try to cross the road to catch a bus, and miss it. Revenge is a dish well served. They really did something atrocious to the aura of the bus, and I half blame them for the huge queues down Victoria Street.

Eleanor:
is it one of those "sea-side towns that they forgot to bomb"??! thats what i used to think about good old L.A (LittlehAmpton....ahem...!)
Ahem indeed! And wasn't it good to see Morrissey at #1 just before Christmas... what, it wasn't *that* Morrissey? Shome mishtake, shurely!

obDisclaimerBashing. Nothing personal, you don't ask for this to be added, but they are things for your legal beagles to think about.
This email and any attachments may be confidential and the subject of legal professional privilege.
Or, it may not. In fact, it probably isn't. In which case, why waste bandwidth? Why not encourage the beagles to add the correct .sig? Stop laughing at the back.

Any disclosure, use, storage or copying of this email without the consent of the sender is strictly prohibited.
And how are we defining consent? Or storage? Or copying? Indeed, how the hell does one "use" an email? Please define your terms much more carefully, with a full understanding of the transmission of POP3 and IMAP mail which is clearly missing from this definition.

Please notify the sender immediately if you are not the intended recipient
Hang on one cotton-pickin' minute, you said in the line above that we weren't to use the email without the sender's permission. We have it without the sender's permission, yet you now ask us to use the email. What gives?

and do not disclose the contents to another person, use, copy or store the information in any medium.
Really. So, what about the copies stored on the servers en route, or retained automatically by backup daemons on a regular nightly (or more frequent) basis? Do you seriously think that a dumb machine is going to recognise your command, still less obey it? Do you want to disrupt a carefully-planned disaster recovery strategy merely because email is inherantly unrouteable?

Someone needs to get real, wise up, and re-write this from scratch. Perhaps something along the lines of...

In the client contract: As email is insecure, we don't recommend discussing confidential or privileged matters by this medium. If you insist on using email, it may go astray, and this may cause you grief; if it does, that's your lookout. Sign here.....

To the end of each email: If you think you've received this email in error, let the sender know by return and delete it from your email program. Thanks.

Shorter, simpler, and not doing anything that can't be done by a user with a modicum of sense. Which probably excludes most legal beagles...

Seriously, though, as it's written, the disclaimer asks the recipient to do six impossible things before breakfast. "Imposes onerous and unreasonable duties," I think would be the verbiage. It's probably void in law from that respect, certainly void as it's not been formally contracted by the recipient, and superfluous as any rational person would either ignore or query unexpected emails of this nature.

In short, it's a load of old cobblers.

Weather: Frosty early, sunny for most of the day. Looks like there was a bit of rain just before I got into Wolverhampton.

Travel: Fine out. A lift means I can get the 1642 (+2) at Longbridge, then the 1704 (+8) headed to Glasgow, before the stopper. The 1742 is timed at +6, but arrives +3, so home by 6 (:

TV: Jolly good: The Century's Greatest Crimes - a Channel 5 30 minute documentary series telling some of Britain's biggest crimes. It's really accessible, well-researched, and a rattling good yarn.

Legacy loses its preferred bidder status for the Millooneyum Doom sale, said the dome minister, Lord Falcuper. The decision follows a ministerial meeting to dismiss Legacy's plan to turn the dome into a high-tech business park. Former dome chief executive Pierre-Yves Gerbil now plans to table a bid, with others expected from a consortium of four property companies and the man behind last summer's withdrawn Nomura bid.
Quite why they don't just rip the thing down and start again is beyond me. Oh, that would expose the folly three months before an election.

Tom and Nicole didn't sign a pre-nuptual agreement? They don't need a divorce lawyer, they need a shrink. If it's true, which is "most unlikely" says Liquid News' correspondent in LA. No-one seems happy to discuss the $cientoliargists' views on divorce, as the self-proclaimed "church" is very litigous.

Jennifer Lopes and Sean Coombover have split. This surprises absolutely nobody.

Baby Spice didn't get married yesterday, it was her mother. However, rumours that Scary Spice is pregnant were not denied at press time.

Victoria:
Hello. Long time, no post, huh?
Happy new year.

I met my husband, Brendan (who is from Ireland) on this list a couple of years ago. We met in person for the first time last year, on Valentine's Day. It's a long story, but we got married ten days later and after much trouble and traveling, have once again settled in WV.
And to think I was going to fire off a "happy anniversary, what's with the silence" missive next weekend. Don't need to now.

It's hard to believe it's been a year. In some ways it seems like it was just yesterday, but then it seems we've never been apart.
Apparently, it really *is* a year. One down, an indeterminate number to go.

We're unbelievably good now, and seem to fall in love all over again every day.
Sick yet?
[green]
'scuse me.

Anyway, missed you guys. Hope you are all well.
I'll get better (:
Missed y'all too.

Weather: Cloudy at dawn, but it clears by lunch to leave a sunny and utterly lovely day.

Travel: No complaints from here, everything runs to time. Worst part is dodging the queues at New Street on the way home - it's half term, and reading week at the unis, and everyone is travelling.

The Mole

With apologies to Grandmaster Flash, let's meet The Furious Five:
Zi Khan, 32, bleep machines are for melting, Doncaster
Jennifer Waller, 37, shocked and depressed, Darlington
David Buxton, 35, took off his shirt in a live paintball game, London
Oliver Norman, 22, loud and proud of it, Glasgow
Sara Lee, 24, couldn't miss a barn door at that distance, Droitwich

Someone who shall remain nameless kept me talking on the phone for five minutes past eight, so I missed the exact details of the first challenge.

Challenge 16 (as I understand it) The five must come down a 150m slide from a tower, over some cliffs to the other side of a small bay. They must then answer a question about the game so far. Three out of five right wins £10,000. The slide is an extended version of the one on The Krypton Factor assault course.

50 metres due up a wartime tower, onto a 1m wide ledge. It's 100m down to the cliff face. Zi, daredevil Zi, goes first. His question: Where was Zi held hostage? St Catherine's Sailing Club it was.

David is up next. Or down next, depending on how you prefer to look at it. Q: Four runners in the maze by how long they spent there. David, Ollie, Paul, Zi... but the last two were in the wrong order.

Ollie is third, and almost clonks the mike boom on the way over the edge. Who were the five in the first (other) plane on the parachute jump? Gloria, Jo, Dave... Jules. But time expires before he could think of John.

Both Sara and Jennifer need their questions. Sara goes first. And enjoys the heck out of it. The lobster potting boat she was in was... Honeybear? Nope, Genesis. Jennifer doesn't have to go. The challenge is lost.

It's a night off. Cue some (mercifully) brief footage of the contestants murdering karaoke classics.

Glen ponders the history...
Zi: reaction to the snipers, car game
[Why cite Zi for losing that game? The team lost it through their incompetence.]
Jennifer: afraid of heights, but did she know what was coming?
Sara: Bunker challenge was wrong all the way through, oh, and last week's Springer impression.
David: Was he tipped off about the bunker questions? And calm at the snipers.
Ollie: The maze, volunteering for the island and a cushy life?

Now, pick someone with a cool head, and a competitive streak. David. Meet a man called Simon at the arts centre for no obvious reason. Everyone else gets the afternoon off. Time they spend down the boozer, naturally. As if *last* night's hangovers weren't bad enough.

Challenge 17: David and Simon have been filmed in the arts centre. Predict 3 of four events correctly, and win £5000.

First... Simon's phone rings while he's away. Does David answer it? Yes, says the team. "Hello" says David.

Second... Does David step off the pavement to avoid walking under a ladder? No, says the team, but he does.

Third... Drinks order - does he order an alcoholic or soft drink? Soft, say the team, after last night. Orange juices all round.

For the cash... The bill is £10 too much. Does David spot it? No, says the team, and unlike David, they're quids in.

A success!

Meanwhile, David is talking with Simon about interrogation techniques... Simon's an ex-SAS man, and the producer had to pop in to tell him to tone it down a little. They don't want to end up with lawsuits and/or boxing on camera.

Oliver seems *very* clued up about what is coming. A nasty night, and one that will rip the group apart, he predicts.

11pm, Elizabeth Castle. David is in a room, looking pensive. Simon is described as a "negotiation and interrogation expert."

Challenge 18: David will try to find out that he was filmed, that film was used in a challenge, and the major details of the four questions. £10,000 if they can keep that info from David till dawn, defined as 6am (though it's really around 5:15.)

The contestants don't know that Simon is in the next room, and communicating with David through an earpiece. The contestants are put in cells, adopt "stress positions" and made to listen to a loop of the theme while sitting in silly positions.

David gets a pass to the next episode if he can get the info.

Zi is smiling, and the CAT logo on his hat is not very well disguised.

Sara is not forthcoming, but Simon reckons Sara is one of the weakest of the group. David parrots this. I don't believe this.

Jennifer says she slept through the afternoon, blanks David totally. He's not going to get anything from her.

Ollie is told that Sara has a bed if Ollie gives some info. Ollie gives some info, but is it accurate?

Zi listens to the terms of the deal David is offering, and gets a bed for his help.

Sara mutters something about having an alcoholic drink. And there was a challenge today. David figures he was filmed in the cafe. Sara breaks on that. And related to money. "Were we overcharged?" "Your bill may have been incorrect."

By 3:45, David is most of the way there, but there's two questions (the ladder and the phone) to find, and not much more than an hour.

Jennifer claims nothing happened. Simon picks her up on this, but nothing is forthcoming.

Zi is "pissed off," according to Simon. "Ask them, then! Why should I help you." Zi loses his bed, and looks like he's in danger of losing his rag. Don't think it's worth while going further down that road.

Ollie is recalled. It's 5am. It's getting light. He mentions a car park. "Do you want to help Sara or not?" Not.

5:30, dawn is breaking. Sara is disoriented. She walks with her eyes almost closed, feeling for the steps rather than walking down them with confidence. David is looking shell-shocked himself. David offers Sara some water .
"The last incident was by the car park. You know what it was."
A long pause. 11 seconds on screen.
"There's one more piece of information we need."
Five seconds pass. They seem even longer than the last pause.
There's a tremor in David's voice as he says, "I'm not even going to ask you for it."
Sara mutters a word under her breath, it could have been the word "ladder" that David needed; it could have been an expletive, it wasn't fully audible.
But David's not listening.
"Just one more piece," urges Simon.
But it's gone. "I don't wanna know. It's wrong. We're going home, I don't want to talk to anybody."

David unplugs his microphone, and walks out of the game.

Presenter Glen confirms that this counts as a win.

Sara reports to the group that David wants to be on his own, he completely broke down.

Much to everyone's pain, someone has to leave ):

Zi - Not David [not Sara, Oliver]
Jennifer - Zi [Zi, Zi, Zi, Zi - is anyone spotting a pattern here?]
David - Zi, he knew what was coming. [Zi, Zi]
Sara - Ollie over Jen [Zi, Oliver, Zi, David]
Oliver - Hedges his bets. Claims to have backed the wrong person through, which is a *blatant fib*. [Zi, Zi, Zi - ring Monty Python! We have a new song!]

I fear for Zi. If (as is looking increasingly likely) Ollie is the mole, he's safe, so is Sara, and Jen and David have strength in numbers.

£70,000 at the start has turned into £85,000 at the end.

David is through.

Sara is through.

Ollie is out!

Pass the humble pie! Everyone is really, really emotional. Including me.

Mole Hunt Clues

16) David had a stinker of a question, Ollie should have been able to work his out by process of elimination, and Sara should have gotten hers. The mole probably got a question wrong, purely based on the odds. Bring to mind challenge 2, where Ollie got a simple question wrong, and Jennifer didn't get to answer.

17) Majority voting on each question limits the influence of the mole. Perhaps one to let them win.

18) Zi was *very* eager to cut a deal, but didn't. Jennifer played a dead bat. Ollie reckons David was fantastic. Sara found it awful. Just like last week. Has David picked up on the dynamic between Ollie and Sara? Not that that counts for anything any more.

Your nomination, Weaver?

Well. That's left my theory deader than a dead parrot. If this were the Weakest Link, I'd be voting Zi off this episode, but it's not, and he will get up my wick for at least one more week.

I can't read much into David breaking before Sara - one of them was going to, that much is clear, it was just a question of which came first. Sara blew an easy question in the death slide, to add to her sins right through the contest.

In the final analysis, though, I have to think about who has made the least contribution from the get-go. And it boils down to Jennifer. No part in the death slide, reluctant to jump in game 1, did little when she paired off with Jo in the charity challenge, poor at the karting, out early at the paintball - and her reaction there.

Jennifer, then, is my latest nomination as the mole, just ahead of Sara. Whoever wins, though, will *really* deserve their money, and I salute all five competitors in an exceptional week.

Weather: Fog lifts around 10 to leave another sunny, if somewhat nippy, day. 7.

To Wednesfield, and get a new PC. It's a £1200 good-range one, 128MB memory, 30GB disc space (and 5GB has gone by the end of the day), CD re-writer. Compared with the previous machine, it's a huge leap. Sets up like a dream, transfers the data from the old PC straight through, and it's all so simple.

Football: Three Premier League teams - West Ham, Leicester and Tottenham - advance to the quarter-finals of England's top cup competition. West Ham won 1-0 over Premier rival Sunderland, Leicester was an easy 3-0 victor at home over Bristol City, and Tottenham slammed first-division Stockport 4-0.

Saturday's other three fifth-round matches wound up in ties, forcing replays: first-division clubs Bolton and Blackburn played to a 1-1 tie, Southampton drew with first-division Tranmere 0-0, and second-division Wycombe rallied to tie first-division Wimbledon 2-2.

The two key FA Cup fifth-round matches were set for Sunday: Arsenal versus Chelsea and Liverpool versus Manchester City.

Angela Bigos:
When filling out foreign customs form he always told me that the best way to keep customs from getting curious about what is in your package and poking around, is to simply list the item as having no value. This also supposedly helps a lot when one is shipping expensive items (unless you wish to take out insurance of course) as it keeps the light fingered members of the happy working staff content to stay the hell out of your stuff.
These are good points to remember, people. The job of a customs officers has no place in a modern society, as it acts solely to police Nation State borders, and the Nation State is a concept that died a death with the end of the second world war.

No, I have few qualms about misleading customs about the exact details of my cross-border shipping. In the honest "break a bad law and get it changed" way of thinking.

So, when filling out the form for Iain's gift, I had Alan write "little or no value".
I seem to recall using a very similar turn of phrase when shipping a gift last week, but that's another post...

Alan told the person and the person got really snotty
He wanted some of whatever it was, no doubt.

Kind of makes UPS sound waaaaay better, doesn't it? If only they delivered to Croatia... Or even delivered at rates that us mere mortals could afford.

---

Jaeda:
Eminem update....he plead guilty in a plea bargain to assault yesterday...
Ah, now that would be the plastic droid. The *real* Mathers has, as regular viewers know, been tied up in a wooden packing crate for the past week and a bit. Sadly, I've had to release it, after it came back as undeliverable. Trans-Oceanic Couriers refuse to deal in livestock, apparently...

he was all over MSNBC yesterday, which caused me to act like a 12 year old watching a 'N Sync video...
He was #3 on Liquid News, behind Tom and Nicole's failure to sign a pre-nup, and Baby Spice not getting married. No-one carried the news that Scary Spice is pregnant again, partly because it's only a rumour, albeit from a very reliable source.

Typically this charge receives a misdemeanor plea bargain and probation. Does anyone else agree that he's being judged more harshly then a normal person would?
I don't have a deep enough knowledge of the intricacies of the legal process concerned to comment. With the possible exception of Shobi, I think the same applies to all of us here.

---

Enrique Lopez:
Have y'all heard about the duet at the grammy's between Elton John and Eminem?? Is it defninate or still in the proposel phase?? What does everyone think about it? Personally I was kinda shocked, they both seem to belong on opesite sides or whatever?
As of Friday morning Eastern, Mr John's people were confirming it, Mr Nem's people were declining to comment, the Grammy showboats said that both acts would appear on the telecast but would not confirm that it would be the closing number.

Neither act will win anything substantive, as Mr John is not nominated and Mr Nem is going to get soundly beaten by Paul Simon in all the categories that actually matter. (As I said five weeks ago, and I'm going to repeat now. "I Hope You Dance" for record of the year, BTW.)

As for an opinion... whose career is in desperate need of a publicity coup? Who thinks he can gain credibility by duetting with one of the most popular acts in the world today? Who is prepared to sell out his principles for one night of fame?

You didn't have this trouble when Andy Bell and k d lang duetted at the Brits, I'll tell ya...

Weather: Foggy all day, though it does lift slightly during the afternoon. Most of the day there's no seeing the other side of the street. +4 is tops.

Chart News

Personal Airplay Stats: 38 contemporary hit records passed my radar this week (42 last), for a total of 59 plays (82 last.)

Debuts:
"Army Of Two" - Dumdums (mr, Feb 5)
"Fever" - Starsailor (mr, Feb 5)
"Hanging By A Moment" - Lifehouse (mr US #1, no release scheduled)
"Loco" - Fun Lovin' Criminals (pop, Feb 5)
"So Why So Sad" - Manic Street Preachers (mr, Feb 26)

Adds:
"Fever" - Starsailor
"Hanging By A Moment" - Lifehouse
"If I Ever Feel Better" - Phoenix
"Loco" - Fun Lovin' Criminals
"Ms Jackson" - Outkast (Feb 19)
"Sailing Off The Edge Of The World" - Straw
"So Why So Sad" - Manic Street Preachers

Most Heard: 3 plays apiece for Toploader's "Dancing In The Moonlight"; Dido's "Here With Me"; Texas' "Inner Smile"; and the Manic Street Preacher's "So Why So Sad." Texas becomes the title of record based on their two week aggregate.